Carlotta Walls LaNier
There are many people who we participated in the Civil Rights Movement Among them is Carlotta Walls. In her early life she was the youngest member of the Arkansas Nine. Her life after high school was very successful. She has earned many awards and achievements. Carlotta Walls LaNier is a very memorable activist from the Civil Rights Movement.
Carlotta Walls LaNier was born on December 18, 1942, to Juanita Walls and the late Cartelyou Walls. She is the oldest of three daughters. LaNier was inspired by Rosa Parks and wanted the best education possible. This led her decision to be part of the Arkansas Nine. When she was 14 she enrolled into Central High School as a sophomore. Some white students called her names and spat on her. President Dwight D. Eisenhower had to dispatch the Army’s 101st Airborne Division to protect her constitutional rights. She concentrated on her studies and protected herself throughout the school year. Walls and every other Little Rock student were barred from attending Central the next year, when all four Little Rock high schools were closed, but she returned to Central High and graduated in 1960.
After LaNier graduated from Central High School, she attended Michigan State University for two years in the early 1960s before moving with her family to Denver. In 1968, she earned a BS from Colorado State College (now the University of Northern Colorado) and began working at the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) as a program administrator for teenagers. 1968 Walls married Ira C. “Ike” LaNier, with whom she had a son and a daughter. In 1977, she founded LaNier and Company, a real estate brokerage firm in Denver. She currently resides in Englewood, Colorado.
LaNier was awarded the prestigious Spingarn Medal by the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), along with the other Little Rock Nine and Daisy Bates, in 1958. She has also served as president of the Little Rock Nine...